Sleep and wellbeing tips for shift workers

Shift work can present a range of challenges due to irregular working hours and disrupted sleep patterns. Working nights and sleeping during the day can also cause social isolation if your loved ones work traditional 9-5 hours. Below, we’ve covered a few essential tips to help promote good mental health while working shifts.

Be consistent with your sleep routine

Even if you have irregular work hours, it’s important to try and create a regular and consistent sleep routine. Aim to build a bedroom environment that promotes great sleep and try to sleep at similar times in the day or night when you have a long run of similar work shifts.

Practice meditation and mindfulness

Engage in relaxation techniques each night (or at least a few nights or days a week) before you go to sleep, including meditative practices (guided or unguided) and mindfulness techniques, such as deep breathing. Doing so activates your parasympathetic nervous system and encourages your body and mind to relax.

Get support whenever possible

Getting the housework done or running errands can be tough if you have an irregular work schedule or work nights. Asking your close family and friends to help with your daily tasks and errands is a great way to free up some time in between work shifts and allow for longer, most restful sleep. You could also opt to utilize convenience services, such as grocery delivery.

Use natural light to your advantage

Natural sunlight signals to the body that it’s time to wake up and get things done. Conversely, a dark room with no sunlight can increase melatonin production in the brain and signal to the body that it’s time to rest.

You can use the human body’s natural response to sunlight to regulate your sleep-wake cycles when you’re working irregular patterns. Expose yourself to lots of sunlight by opening the curtains when you want to stay awake and blackout curtains when you want to rest. You could also try light therapy lamps to mitigate the potential negative effects of working night shifts.